


Basic Assumption of Responsibility

by onemechanicalalligator



Series: Topics in Romance and Recovery [7]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Heart-to-Heart, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, M/M, implied/referenced eating disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28091454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onemechanicalalligator/pseuds/onemechanicalalligator
Summary: Annie comes home and has a heart-to-heart with Abed.
Relationships: Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Series: Topics in Romance and Recovery [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1775179
Comments: 6
Kudos: 63





	Basic Assumption of Responsibility

When Annie gets home the next morning, Troy and Abed are both still asleep in the blanket fort. She can hear both of them snoring lightly and it warms her heart and makes her smile. It’s a sound she hasn’t heard for awhile, her boys asleep, and she’s surprised to feel tears welling up in her eyes, to realize how much she’s missed _both_ of them.

She sits down on the couch and lets herself cry a little bit, hoping to get it out of her system before they get up, hoping not to overwhelm Abed with so much emotion after everything he’s been through. She’s missed him so much, though, and now he’s _home,_ and not only that, _Troy’s here too._ It’s just...a lot.

She’s wiping her eyes with a tissue when she hears whispering and movement in the fort, and she can tell both of them are now awake.

“Good morning, guys,” she calls, just as a warning, just so they know they’re not alone. Just in case.

“Annie!” cries Troy, and a moment later he bursts out of the fort and throws his arms around her.

“Troy!” she shrieks, hugging him as tight as she possibly can. “I can’t believe you’re here!”

“Me neither, honestly,” he says. “This all feels so surreal.”

“I’m so glad you came,” Annie says. “I know Abed must be, too.”

“Oh, I am,” Abed says, walking into the room, and Annie lunges at him.

“I missed you, too!” she cries. “I know it’s only been a few days since we saw each other, but it’s just so nice to see you _here._ At _home.”_ She pauses. “Is it weird? Being back in the apartment?”

“A little,” Abed admits. “But I’ve mostly been trying to focus on the fact that Troy’s here.”

Troy and Abed pour themselves bowls of Lucky Charms and go sit in the living room with Annie while they eat. Troy tells Annie stories about the boat and a few of the places he’s been, and she glances at Abed every so often to see him listening closely to every word Troy says. She thinks there’s nothing better than seeing them together and knowing they’re _actually together._ She’s seen this coming for such a long time. 

Troy and Annie are deep into an animated discussion about what it's like sailing with LeVar Burton when Abed silently stands up and slips back into the blanket fort. Annie raises an eyebrow at Troy, who shrugs, and they keep talking. Annie figures Abed would have spoken up if he needed them.

Once it’s been awhile, though, and Abed hasn’t come back, Annie starts to get concerned.

“Is he okay, do you think?” she asks Troy quietly.

Troy shrugs. “He’s kinda been having ups and downs since he got home. Maybe you should go check on him, just to make sure.”

“Me?” Annie asks hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Troy says. “I’ve had him to myself for a whole day. And I know he missed you a lot.”

Annie nods and then walks over to the entrance to the blanket fort and taps on the sheet.

“Knock, knock,” she says softly.

There’s no response.

“Abed?” Annie says, a little louder. “Can I come in?”

There’s still no response, and Annie begins to worry. She gingerly pokes her head into the fort and sees Abed laying on the bottom bunk, facing the wall, headphones on his ears. _Well, that explains why he didn’t answer._

Annie steps all the way into the fort and very gently lays a hand on Abed’s shoulder. She half expects him to startle, but he doesn’t, and she wonders if he was expecting her or Troy to come check on him.

He rolls over and pulls off the headphones. Annie thinks his eyes look a little red, his face a little pale.

“Hey,” she says gently. “Sorry to bother you. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Abed runs a hand through his hair and gives her a small smile.

“Just having a Moment, I guess,” he says. “I was thinking about the last time we were in this apartment together, and how I was treating you, and I just--” He cuts himself off and presses his lips together. “I’m sorry, Annie.”

“Oh, Abed,” Annie says, and sits down on the edge of the mattress. “You have nothing to apologize for.

“I was basically ignoring you,” Abed argues. “And avoiding you. That’s not how friends act. That’s not how _we_ act.”

“You were struggling.” Annie puts a hand on his arm. “I didn’t understand that at the time. _I’m_ sorry for that.”

“I didn’t want you to understand. I didn’t want you to know anything was wrong. I didn’t want any of you to know.” Abed pulls his knees up to his chest so he’s curled up into a ball, still laying on his side. He’s facing Annie, but he doesn’t look at her.

“I should have paid more attention to you after Troy left," Annie says. "I was so caught up in my own grief, I didn’t pay enough attention to yours.”

“It wasn't your job to pay attention to me,” Abed says. “I'm an adult. And anyway, I kind of appreciated that you weren’t hovering over me or anything. I was a little afraid you would. And I don’t know what I would have done if you had noticed what was happening. I think...I think it needed to get as bad as it did in order for me to get better. Because it wasn’t really Troy leaving that was the problem.”

“No?”

“No, it was a lot of stuff. Stuff like my issues with my parents, and the-- the suicide attempt, and all of that. I never dealt with any of that before. And it was kind of destroying me. I mean, that was probably why I saw the stop motion and the lava and everything, too. There’s just...a lot of stuff I’ve been trying not to think about for a very long time. And now I have to think about it. And I hate it, but it’s also good, I guess.”

“If I’d known that you were hurting yourself, though, or…or not eating. I could have confronted you, _someone_ could have said something--”

“Annie, the only way anyone could ever get me to go to a hospital is if I was unconscious. You know it’s true. And that’s where I needed to be.”

Annie nods, because Abed’s right. She does know that. And regardless of what she _could have_ done, the truth is, she _didn’t,_ and things just happened the way they did, and there’s no point in obsessing over it anymore. She decides to focus on the future.

“So how are you feeling now?” she asks. “Do you feel safe here at home?”

“Most of the time,” Abed says softly. “I’m, um. I’m trying to be completely open and honest with you? Because it’s the healthy thing to do. But it also feels completely unnatural to talk to you about this and it’s scary and I just... Please don’t be disappointed when I tell you it’s still hard. I’m not all better yet. I’m trying my best.” He whispers the last part, still looking away from Annie. 

“Of course I’m not disappointed in you, Abed. I don’t-- I’m not _expecting_ anything from you. I trust you to do what you need to do, and I’m here to help any way I can. But you don’t have to be all better right now. I know I didn’t come home from rehab all better.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Annie smiles and brushes Abed’s hair away from his face with her fingers. He sits up and rests his back against the wall, and Annie scoots over to sit next to him. She takes one hand in hers and laces their fingers together.

“You guys doing okay?” comes Troy’s voice from outside the blanket fort.

“Come in,” calls Abed, and Troy does. He looks at Abed and Annie, then gets on the bed and sits down on Abed’s other side. He takes Abed’s other hand in his.

“It’s nice to be back together again,” he says wistfully. “I’ve never loved living anywhere as much as I loved living here with you guys.”

Abed turns to Troy and kisses him on the cheek, then on the mouth as Troy turns his head.

“You guys!” Annie squeals. “I’ve been wanting this to happen for _so long.”_

“You might’ve mentioned that to _us_ at some point,” Troy says sardonically. “Maybe we would have figured things out a little sooner.”

“Maybe everything happened the way it needed to happen,” Abed says, shrugging. “This was the final draft of the script, the essential plot twist. The run of episodes where everything came together the way it was supposed to.”

“That’s a better way of looking at it,” Annie agrees. 

“I love you,” Abed says, looking at Troy. Then he turns to Annie. “And I love you. Thank you so much. For everything.”

Annie and Troy turn towards Abed at the same time, enveloping him in a hug, holding him close.

Annie thinks she has never felt more at home. 


End file.
